Former Deputy National Security Advisor Dina Powell McCormick said on Tuesday that recent regional reforms and alliances, including the 2020 Abraham Accords, have been instrumental in the Middle East’s development and its response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and ensuing war in Gaza.

“I think we are moving too fast sometimes, and don’t pause on how critical it is that even after October 7, not one of the signatories of that peace treaty got out,” Powell McCormick said in comments made at the Future Investment Initiative Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “And I believe it’s thanks to President [Donald] Trump, thanks to Jared Kushner, thanks to [Special Envoy] Steve Witkoff, the reason that we saw the ceasefire happen, the release of the hostages and Inshallah, God-willing, a more stable Gaza so the humanitarian suffering can end.” 

“I think it’s because, in many ways, the seeds were planted to have last week that announcement not just by the United States, but over 50 countries, again, from Egypt and Jordan, the Emiratis, the Qataris, the Turks, the Pakistanis,” Powell McCormick continued. “This is remarkable.”

Powell McCormick, who served in the first Trump administration and is now vice chairman and president of global client services at BDT-MSD, reflected on a trip to the region nearly a decade ago while working for the White House. “I think if you had told us then that nine years later, you would have seen the economic, social and political gains and transformation that we have seen,” she said, “it would have been hard to believe economically … it would have been hard to imagine that this kingdom and this region of the world is now the dominant source of capital for innovation, the dominant source of capital for the change that we’re witnessing in every industry, artificial intelligence, biotech, robotics, longevity.”